The Joys of Winter: Take it Easy on Ice and Snow with Opel

Clear visibility from the start: Stationary heating and heated windscreen

Cosy warmth: heating for steering wheel as well as front and rear seats

Rüsselsheim. The nights are getting longer, frosty and slippery. High time to adapt to wintry temperatures and road conditions – and those who want to feel relaxed in these conditions drive Opel. With their numerous safety and comfort features, the cars from Rüsselsheim help to make winter-driving safer and more relaxed. With adaptive all-wheel drive (AWD), IntelliLux LED® headlights and steering wheel heating, Opel cars are ready for the worst that winter can throw at them.

Get a grip – with the right tyres and intelligent traction control

Winter tyres ensure better road holding and shorter braking distances in snow. A tread depth of four to five millimetres is vital and the tyres should not have more than six winters behind them.

On slippery surfaces the right traction is just as important as the right tyres. Depending on the model, Opel offers intelligent traction control systems from IntelliGrip to adaptive all-wheel drive with torque vectoring. With IntelliGrip on the new Opel Grandland X, the driver can choose from five modes – including mud and snow. IntelliGrip adapts torque distribution to the front wheels, allows slip when necessary and adjusts the accelerator pedal control map. When combined with an automatic transmission, IntelliGrip optimises the shift points to the prevailing driving situation, further increasing safety and driving comfort.

Alternatively, customers can immediately decide on all-wheel drive in order to keep a sure-footing on slippery surfaces. Take the best-selling Opel Mokka X SUV, for example, to get a firm grip on mud, snow and ice: the adaptive AWD system distributes the torque as necessary in split seconds, from economical 100 percent front-wheel drive to 50:50 between the front and rear axles, thus ensuring maximum traction. All-wheel drive is briefly available after every engine-start, as soon as the driver presses the clutch pedal, preventing wheel-spin at launch. Once underway, all the torque goes to the front wheels, unless the road or the traction conditions require a different distribution.

For the highest levels of performance and efficiency, the new Opel Insignia uses an adaptive all-wheel drive system with torque vectoring and a rear drive module that has a twin clutch system without differential. The Insignia’s all-wheel drive system can apply torque to one or both of the rear wheels independently, enabling torque vectoring capability across the car’s full performance range. When cornering, higher torque is sent to the outside rear wheel, inducing rotation around the vertical axis (yaw) – the Insignia turns in with more precision, responding more spontaneously to inputs from the driver. This intelligent use of torque distribution – also known as “yaw damping” – results in neutral vehicle behaviour, making the car more stable and steerable for the driver.

Into the dark? Turn night into day with IntelliLux LED® headlights

Wet, snowy and icy conditions are also accompanied by darkness during most of the day during the winter months. However, Opel has excellent remedies: adaptive full-LEDheadlights (e.g. Mokka X, Grandland X) or IntelliLux LED® matrix headlights, as on the Astra and new Insignia. The adaptive LED matrix light (32 LED elements, 16 each side in the latest generation on the new Insignia) adapts to the prevailing situation and enables driving with full beam – without glaring other road users. It also enables people or animals near the road to be seen earlier than with conventional low beam.

Take off in warm comfort – with de-icing and heating options from Opel

A good idea is to plan extra time for getting rid of snow and ice on the car before taking off. Opel customers need not bother with this if their car has a stationary heater on board. Thanks to remote control timer or automatic programming according to temperature sensors, the passenger compartment is cosy before anyone gets in, the windows are free of ice and the engine is warmed up. Stationary heating is thus not only a wellness-feature. With a warm engine, oil and catalytic converter reach operating temperature quicker, wear and emissions at launch are reduced. Optional factory-installed stationary heating is available on the Opel Vivaro and Movano light commercial vehicles, as well as on the Corsa, Astra, Cascada, Mokka X, Insignia and Zafira passenger cars.

Equally helpful are de-icers such as heated exterior mirrors and heated windscreens, as on the Opel Insignia and Grandland X. The windshield is defrosted silently and comfortably at the push of a button, by a fine wire heating element. The heated windshield also prevents fogging in humid conditions, further improving visibility and safety.

Opel vehicles also have additional features for making the interior feel cosy. Most of the cars, for example, offer a heated steering wheel. It takes less than a minute for the driver to feel the warmth in his hands.

When it comes to wellness, the heated, multi-adjustable and ergonomically certified AGR seats certified by the back specialists from Aktion Gesunder Rücken e.V. are the cherry on the cake. The ultra-modern seats enable everyone to find the ideal seating position thanks to the numerous adjustment functions. The optional Premium AGR seats ensure a relaxing trip thanks to their unique combination of side bolster adjustment, massage function and heating in winter or cooling ventilation in summer. As an additional luxury, passengers on the heated outer rear seats of the Opel Astra, Grandland X and Insignia also benefit from extra warmth.

Drivers and passengers can thus simply step into their Opel without winter coats or gloves. Thanks to the variety of heating options they can feel cosy, as well as safe, right from the start of the journey. And neither freedom of movement nor buckling up the safety belt are restricted by thick clothing.

Further information about official fuel consumption, official specific CO2 emissions and consumption of electric energy can be found in the “guideline about fuel consumption, CO2 Emissions and electric energy consumption of new passenger cars” ('Leitfaden über den Kraftstoffverbrauch, die CO2-Emissionen und den Stromverbrauch neuer Personenkraftwagen') in German language, which is available free of charge at any point of sales and at DAT Deutsche Automobil Treuhand GmbH, Helmuth-Hirth-Straße 1, D-73760 Ostfildern.